“People’s Tribunal” Launched in Haiti to Commemorate 101 Years of U.S. Occupation
“People’s Tribunal” Launched in Haiti to Commemorate 101 Years of U.S. Occupation
August 2, 2016
by Mark Schuller
Thursday, July 28, when Hillary Rodham Clinton took to the stage to accept the Democratic nomination to be the first female candidate of a major political party for president, was also the 101st anniversary of the U.S. military occupation of Haiti that lasted nineteen years.
Hundreds of people took to the streets and filled a gym named after president Stenio Vincent, who negotiated the departure of the U.S. Marines in 1934, to launch the People’s Tribunal on U.S. Occupation/Domination. The march began at Fort National, of historic significance. Equally significant was the rapprochement of various segments of Haiti’s progressive movements, often fragmented along political lines.
As the U.S. is gearing towards what will almost certainly be an expensive, combative, and highly charged general election, Haitian authorities have rescheduled elections for October 9. While some praised interim President Jocelerme Privert for declaring financial independence from the U.S., vowing to hold the elections without U.S. funding, this assertion of sovereignty was eroded as much of the $55 million budgeted for the elections will go to foreign firms to print the ballots. Privert’s tightening of the state’s belts has asphyxiated the already fragile public sector, notably education and health care. The State University of Haiti is in a prolonged crisis deepened Friday by the arrests of protestors occupying the administrative building, and doctors at the State Hospital have been on strike for months.
These contemporary struggles underscore the stakes in the efforts to re-unify the Haitian left. And they also underscore the need for a historical analysis and reparations. Without naming them all, here are six contemporary legacies of the first 1915-1934 U.S. Occupation:
More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/08/02/peoples-tribunal-launched-in-haiti-to-commemorate-101-years-of-u-s-occupation/
Good Reads:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1016164656
